Obama is making a big change to one of the harshest punishments for criminals

US President Barack Obama announced on Monday that he is
banning the use of solitary confinement for juveniles and
low-level offenders in federal prisons.

In a Washington Post editorial that will be published on
Tuesday, Obama outlined a series of executive actions
he is taking at the recommendation of the US Justice Department.

The recommendations
include the banning of solitary confinement for juveniles and
prisoners who commit "low-level infractions," as well as an
increase in the amount of time prisoners in solitary confinement
can spend outside.

"The United States is a nation of second chances, but the
experience of solitary confinement too often undercuts that
second chance," Obama wrote in the editorial.

Obama mentioned a host of "devastating, lasting
psychological consequences" that stem from solitary confinement,
such as depression, the potential for violent behavior, and the
increased likelihood of committing suicide.

He also invoked Kalief Browder, the New York man who as a
teenager spent three years in prison — much of them in solitary
confinement — for being accused of stealing
a backpack. Browder was released from prison in 2013
and committed
suicide in June at 22.

After Browder was released, Obama wrote that "life was a
constant struggle to recover from the trauma of being locked up
alone for 23 hours a day."

Obama has made criminal-justice reform a priority as he
aims to cement his presidential legacy. In July,
Obama became the first sitting president to visit a federal
prison.

"Do we really think it makes sense to lock so many people
alone in tiny cells for 23 hours a day, sometimes for months or
even years at a time?" Obama
said in a speech at the NAACP convention in July.
"That is not going to make us safer. That's not going to
make us stronger. And if those individuals are ultimately
released, how are they ever going to adapt? It's not
smart."

As many as 100,000 prisoners are being held in solitary
confinement at any given time,
according to The Washington Post. Obama's reforms are
expected to affect about 10,000 inmates.

Some state-level studies have found that prisoners held in
solitary confinement are more likely to commit crimes after being
released than prisoners kept in less-restrictive housing.